Hey Brother
by justsomeone2010
Summary: A young Loki is upset, feeling like the world is against him. Well, all except for one - Thor. Set when Thor and Loki are young, i.e 14 and 18 ish...or the Asgardian equivalent anyway.


**A/N: I kind of had in mind while writing this that Thor and Loki are young. Teen kind of young, like 14 to 18 ish.**

**Hey Brother **

"Loki! Loki!"

The young, dark haired prince could hear his name being yelled across the palace by his brutish brother but he made no attempt to acknowledge him. He just stared ahead with distant green eyes, lost in his own thought.

Absent-mindedly, his fingers twirled in front of him, as if revolving a goblet in front of his face. But there was no goblet; only air... and the water droplets rising delicately out from the tranquil waters that bobbed beneath the rainbow bridge, flowing out gently towards the Bifrost chamber. The young prince sat perched on the edge, legs dangling over the side as he let himself be mesmerized by the enchanted water.

_So beautiful, _he thought in a whisper in his head. He watched the way the light danced off the water droplets, glistening like jewels... it was dazzling. The most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

More beautiful than Sif anyway.

He burned with shame as the last few hours echoed in his mind. His embarrassment would be the palace gossip for weeks, he was sure.

He thought she liked him. When she had carried the conversation over weapons and battle, he was certain she liked him. She had to - there was no other reason for her to partake in such conversation topics unless she was interested in his bravery and skill! And when she'd suggested he give her a lesson...

The water droplets fell one by one from the air alongside his falling spirits; why on Asgard had he tried to kiss her...

Oh, yes, he knew why - Thor!

He didn't notice the bootsteps until they were mere paces away. "Loki..."

Thor's voice was soft .. sympathetic. Loki grimaced - this was all Thor's fault. If he hadn't have spurred Loki on, encouraged him...

"I swear, I did not know."

_Know_... Loki wanted to be mad at his brother, but realistically, how could Thor have

known? He'd been fooled by Sif's actions much the same as Loki had. There was no way he could have known she was truly after nothing more than fighting skills, as strange as that was for a maiden. He knew he couldn't truly blame Thor...but he wanted to. He wasn't sure his pure, overwhelming humiliation left any space for responsibility.

"She laughed at me." Loki remembered quietly, head hanging slightly. He was so embarrassed.. and in front of Thor! "Laughed, and said there was no chance she was ever to be enamored by me."

That had stung. When she'd jerked back, with the spear Loki had just been positioning in her hands nearly goring Loki as he leaned in quickly, trying to steal a kiss while her lips had been parted, distracted, focusing...thinking back, it was obvious she was not in love with him. But did she have to laugh? As if it was such a joke for a maiden to love him? That really stung.

"So you come to the Bifrost?" Thor breathed a chuckle. _Even he is laughing now_, Loki thought bitterly in his head. "What did you hope to do? Run away?"

Loki didn't turn his head as he felt his brother perched down next to him, blonde and blue eyed and perfect. Thor, the Golden Boy. He could never understand. Not how Loki felt, not really.

"Maybe." Loki blinked, staring down at the water with dull eyes.

His brother chuckled again. "A mere maiden would chase you out of the realm? Sif may be feisty but she is nothing to a prince of Asgard. What would she do? - make patterns in her sewing about your little moment in the training room-"

"It's not funny!" Loki snarled, turning away from Thor as much as he could. It was all Thor's fault. He didn't even want to glimpse a single blonde hair on the young thunder god's head he hated him so much. "She humiliated me in front of the whole guard patrol! I saw in their eyes what they were thinking."

_Poor little prince with a crush_, was what they'd been thinking. It had been written on their faces - on their sly smirks, in their twinkling eyes, on the chuckles that had chased Loki out of the training grounds and sent him running until he had found himself here, guided by his own instinct. Maybe the quiet had drawn him. Nobody to laugh at him here - well, not until Thor came.

A hand clapped down on his shoulder, trying to twist him back, but Loki stayed stiffly turned away. "Wait," Thor said, poorly hiding the amusement in his voice. "You tried to kiss her in front of the guard patrol?!"

Loki was glad Thor couldn't see his face - and the way it pinkened under his brother's taunts. "You said to kiss her in a close moment while I was helping her." he gruffed defensively. Those had been Thor's instructions: find something Sif needed help with - a grip, her posture, anything - and use that excuse to lean in close to correct her and...

Thor laughed freely and Loki jumped when Thor's spare hand clapped down on his knee with a smacking sound, leaning over with his chuckles. "Not while half of Asgard are watching!"

Loki's cheeks burned. He hadn't considered that at the time.

In hindsight, it was obvious. He should have found somewhere more private, somewhere quieter to spend time with Sif. Even if it was still to teach her something - he could have taken her to his chambers. That was a big enough space for what he'd been showing her. She hadn't even made an actual move with the spear before Loki had moved in and ruined it.

His shoulders slumped, angry expression loosening sadly. "I ruin everything." he sighed more to himself than his brother.

Not just Sif, but ..well, everything. None of the girls liked him. The boys didn't want him to train with him. The soldiers didn't respect him the same way they respected Thor...

Why not? Because he was skinny where Thor had muscle? Because his hair was dark where Thor's was blonde? Because his green eyes were colder and more foreboding than Thor's bright, electric blue ones? Because he was a century younger? He wasn't a kid anymore. He was just as good a fighter as Thor was. Why did everyone seem to avoid him though, like he was cursed?

Sighing again, Loki let himself turn back to his older brother, eyes lowered to anything but Thor's eyes. He focused on the colours dancing in the structure of the rainbow bridge instead, trying to decide if it was more beautiful than the water droplets. "It's not just Sif, Thor." he admitted in a dull voice.

Sif was just one girl.. but she dug the knife in deeper regarding something Loki had been thinking about for a while. He sighed again: "People treat me different." he admitted quietly, hands twisting anxiously in his lap. "I've noticed. Nobody wants to fight with me, or walk with me, or drink with me.. I'm like an outcast."

Maybe he was paranoid but...Loki noticed it sometimes. A glance here. A word there. Avoiding him. Perhaps seeing the way Thor excelled in everything while Loki's skill - by no means shabby himself - progressed slower made people think less of him somehow. At first Loki had though he must just be imagining it. But after Sif's reaction... he knew it was true. People saw him differently than they saw Thor. Like he was more the palace pet than prince.

What would Thor say?, he wondered. Whatever the response, there was an awkward pause before it came.

Finally - "That's not true at all." Thor laughed stiffly beside him. "People love you just as much as they do I-"

He didn't even get a chance to even finish the sentence before Loki pushed his older brother's hand off his shoulder. "No, they don't!" he huffed frustrated. "Sometimes it's like they can hardly stand to be around me. Like I'm some kind of monster..."

That was what it felt like sometimes. Some of the looks they gave him.. like he was no better than the Giants, no less disgusting to them.

They didn't look at Thor like that.

For a second, there was silence... then Thor sighed and the young thunder god settled his hands on his knees, turning his bright blue eyes out to the Asgardian horizon. _So he noticed it too, _Loki thought in his mind, heart sinking at his brother's reaction.

"Look Loki.." Thor started warily; his brow furrowed a touch as he stared into the distance. "You just need to prove yourself." He finally settled on.

Prove himself? How? Why? That made little sense - Thor was just as innocent as he. Neither of them had seen battle, so why was Thor already a cut above Loki when they both had the same experience, the same skill?

Then the blonde god's serious face cracked with a trace of a smirk. "Although your magic puts you at a formidable advantage sometimes." he added under his breath.

Thor's soft chuckle was gentle, but rich in life, echoing smoothly in Loki's head; it teased his own lips into a semblance of a smirk. "Mother could have taught you too, you know." Loki pressed his lips together to contain his tempting grin.

Thor didn't bother, letting his smile widen on his face as he stared out into space. "I don't think I have the precision magic requires." he disagreed. "Or the concentration. I remember you scouring the library and reading for hours over spells to learn ...while I'm not even certain as to where the library even is in the palace."

Loki watched him as he spoke, watched the faint touch of competitiveness flit over his brother's face as he merely spoke about being inferior at something. The thunder god drew a lazy leg up until his boot rested on the rainbow bridge's edge, leg folded against his black tunic covered torso.

"I'll leave the tricks to you." he decided firmly.

_Tricks_... the word echoed in Loki's mind as his eyes wondered away from his older brother. Tricks and mischief. Nobody ever called it by anything with a shred of dignity. Magic was a science just like medicines were, but barely anybody - not even Thor, the son of a witch - treated it as such.

Was that what other people saw in him also then? A source of mockery, not worth the dignity? Just like his unique skills? He knew it was true, why everybody treated him so differently.

Loki's gaze fell down to stare numbly between his knees, mind wondering. "What if I were to leave this place?" he thought aloud, voice soft.

He thought about it a lot. Dreamed of it sometimes. To just leave Asgard and find a place where he belonged, where he would fit in for once. Sometimes.. when he felt like he'd never be able to measure up to Thor's shadow, to Odin's expectations...

Naturally, Thor chuckled. "Where would you go?"

Loki's eyes rolled up to the sky, gazing over the stars and galaxies above him. Which would he go to. "I don't know." he murmured. "Alfheim, maybe. Vanaheim. Maybe even Midgard. The mortals there are fascinated with magic."

Asgard was prejudice against magic but not all realms were. The gods of Vanaheim and the elves of Alfheim saw magic as an art, a worthy skill. Even the humans of Midgard were entranced with it, even though they didn't truly understand the science behind it. He'd fit in any of those places more than he did here. Especially Midgard. It was a place of banishment, a place of exile. When someone wanted to make a fresh start, a new life, they went to Midgard.

"I wouldn't be in a hurry to seek sanctuary in Midgard during the Witch Hunt if I were you, brother." Thor scoffed, putting his palms down on the bridge behind him and leaning back casually, looking up to the stars alongside Loki. "Father says the death toll is almost incalculable. That there are so many pyres burning down there it's a miracle we can't see the smoke from Asgard!"

Oh yes... Loki had forgotten the persecution on Midgard regarding sorcery. "They only burn the women, right?" he frowned up at the sky.

"Yes." Thor near growled beside him. "Massacring their own kind like this...apparently, Father's investigators have yet to find a mortal genuinely practicing magic. They are murdering innocent women in droves for nothing."

Cold washed over Loki's heart, but he fought down the horrified shivers - Asgard may not like magic but at least it wasn't as brutal as to execute for it.

But while it may be safe, he wasn't sure if it truly felt like home to him anymore. He stood out so much amongst everyone else, was different, was treated differently because of it. In Asgard he was an outcast. Loki was the weirdo. Just his look alone: dark hair - who had dark hair in Asgard?! Nobody! Everybody was blonde and fair. Blonde and fair - and proud of it! Loki couldn't be a part of that.

Some said that his magic turned his hair dark, as a curse. It wasn't true, of course; Loki knew he had dark hair before he learned magic. But it shone a very revealing light into what others thought of him.

As if Sif's rejection wasn't plain enough. Just thinking about her made something inside him burn with rage. The way she'd tossed her own waves over blonde hair proudly over her shoulder as she'd laughed at Loki's advances. She wasn't that pretty, Loki thought. To be laughing. Maybe he should really use his magic to curse her hair black and she how much she laughed then, when others treated her the same way as they did him. She wasn't far off it already. Her beauty was all that stopped her apparently all too real dreams of fighting from being ridiculed beyond mercy, and if that was gone..

"Don't think about it, Loki. I know that look."

Loki glanced down at Thor's voice and found his brother's stern blue eyes piercing into him. His brow was furrowed slightly, mouth pressed into a line - he was serious.

But he was Thor. It as different to him. Loki's eyes grazed jealously over his brother's blonde hair and blue eyes, his hansom face. "What would you know about it?" the young prince growled bitterly, rolling his eyes away to the abyss. "You have no trouble winning maidens affections, whereas I'll never be able to look Sif in the eye ever again-"

"Yes, you will!" Thor cut off quickly, leaning forward, trying - and failing - to catch Loki's eye. "And besides, I thought this was about more than Sif..."

"It is.." Loki let his eyes fall, avoiding Thor's gaze. "What would you do if I left? And didn't come back..." he asked quietly.

Thor didn't leave his brothers spirits a second to dampen any further before he answered him. His answer was instant: "Then I would follow you." he replied without hesitation.

Loki's eyes blinked back to life.

His head lifted slowly, brow frowning over his glistening eyes as they met Thor's earnest blue ones, crinkled in the corner with his soft smile. "Truly?" Loki asked quietly.

Thor's eyes just settled, sparkling. His smile widened warmly. "You are my little brother, Loki." he said. "And I would do anything for you."

Loki said nothing, just letting those words settle in, knitting together the doubts that stung at his heart from everyone else. Whether he was different or not - Thor didn't care. It didn't matter to him. Loki's hands gripped together in his lap until his knuckles were white, trying to channel the aching thump in his heart.

The thunder god blinked and glanced ahead again, out to the cosmos. "Battles are fought and won." he went on. "Women come and go. Nations rise and fall. But you and I will always be brothers. Nothing can change that."

Loki didn't bother trying to rein in the smile that teased at his lips, letting Thor's acceptance comfort him. He smiled down at the multicolored glass between his knees. His brother may be loud and bold and stupid - but he was loyal. Nobody could question that. And he was probably the only reason that Loki still tolerated this realm, why he didn't just run away and leave it all.

A strong arm settled around his shoulders and Loki just chuckled as Thor's fingers ruffled his hair. "There's nothing in the world I wouldn't do for you, Loki."

The young prince fluttered his eyes shut and embraced the moment; letting the soft words sink into his soul, feeing the safety and comfort that strong arm around his shoulders brought, the love those fingers ruffled into his dark locks. This was what he stayed for. Thor made this bearable. Thor made any place home.

Loki leaned back into Thor's arm, settling his head down on his brother's shoulder as his eyes bathed over the stars ahead. Stars he would flee to were it not for his brother.

"Thank you, brother." he breathed, dreamy smile ghosting on his lips.

**A/N Bit of a spur of the moment experiment but I hope you like it. Was fun for me to explore a more loving side to Thor and Loki's relationship for once. Again, I hope you like it. **

**Please review!**


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